Winterization Season

With winterization season upon us, here is some introductory info on why you need to winterize a vacant home. Throughout colder areas of the US temps can often drop below the freezing mark during the winter months. A few days of low temps, or even a few hours of extremely low temps can cause the water in a homes plumbing and heating pipes to freeze. Thawing the pipes out can take hours with high powered heating equipment. If that's not bad enough, the frozen water may cause the pipes to expand and break. This could cause thousands of dollars in flooding and plumbing damages in a very short period of time. Damages don't just occur in easy to reach places. Breaks can occur behind walls, under tiled and wood floors, and in expensive boiler parts. Depending on the type of heating system and its source of energy may dictate the winterization recommended for your system. Keeping the heat on at 60 degrees or more will generally ensure that no freeze damage occurs, however should the heating system unexpectedly shutoff without you knowing, major damage could occur. It is for this reason that a vacant home that is left unattended for any extended period of time should be full winterized. The follow up posts will be basic information on the most common heating systems, how they work, and how the homes they are in should be winterized. Until next time be sure to keep a close on your homes to prevent freezing!